This week, we welcome Vandana Jain. Jain is an artist and textile designer based in Brooklyn. She received her Bachelor’s from New York University and went on to study Textile Design at the Fashion Institute of Technology. Her work explores the intersections of pattern and symbol, and spirituality and consumerism.
Jain’s work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally. In the last few years, she has had solo projects at Hallwalls Contemporary Art Center, Buffalo (2018); Lakeeren Gallery in Mumbai, India (2012); Station Independent Projects, Lower East Side (2013); and Smack Mellon and BRIC House in Brooklyn (2014).
She has received several awards for her work including the Emerging Artist’s Fellowship at Socrates Sculpture Park, the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Workspace Residency, and the Joan Mitchell Painters and Sculptors Grant. Her work has been profiled in Artforum, The New York Times, Art Slant, Mumbai Boss, Kyoorius and Beautiful Decay.
Jain says “My work recontextualizes the rich visual symbolic language surrounding us to comment on capitalism, globalization and consumerism. I often use labor-intensive and handworked techniques to contrast with the clean aesthetic and design of corporate brands and national flags. Some questions that I am addressing include the voice of the individual in contemporary society, the relationship of the spiritual to the commercial, and the larger political and economic power structures at play.”
To see more of Jain’s work, visit her Instagram page and website.